Panelists point to poor school discipline practices to explain 'school-to-prison pipeline'

Thursday

Mar 7, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 7, 2013 at 6:13 AM

NEW BEDFORD — Public education's reliance on "zero-tolerance" discipline policies has helped create a "school-to-prison" pipeline that disproportionately affects low-income and minority students, a panel of experts said Monday.

NATALIE SHERMAN

NEW BEDFORD — Public education's reliance on "zero-tolerance" discipline policies has helped create a "school-to-prison" pipeline that disproportionately affects low-income and minority students, a panel of experts said Monday.

Black students face expulsion or suspension more often than white students — even if they have committed the same offense, said Madeline Cousineau, a sociology professor at Mount Ida College and the author of a paper called "Institutional Racism and the School-to-Prison Pipeline."

For example, a 2010 NAACP lawsuit against the Wake County Board of Education in North Carolina showed data that about 51 percent of black students accused of an assault on school personnel received a long-term suspension compared to about 13 percent of accused white students.

A similar trend emerged for more minor violations: about 71 percent of black students accused of using inappropriate language received a short-term suspension compared to about 63 percent of white students.

The problems are a product of "institutionalized racism," said Toni Saunders, the executive director of the nonprofit Associated Advocacy Center-Visions for the Future Inc., which advocates on behalf of students with learning challenges. Saunders called for cultural awareness training for teachers and more diverse hiring practices.

"If they're not culturally competent, how are they going to be able to deliver the appropriate education to all students?" she said.

Higher rates of suspension make it more likely that minority students will end up dropping out — a strong predictor of incarceration, Cousineau said. The increasing placement of security officers in schools also makes it more likely that disciplinary problems will end up being treated as a criminal matter, she said.

"We just use zero tolerance and suspensions and expulsions instead of things that work," said Cousineau.

Once students leave the Department of Youth Services, which supervises juveniles who get in trouble and end up in the courts, school systems are also often slow to return students to classrooms, continuing the problem, said David Chandler, who has worked for DYS since 1998.

"We don't work collaboratively," he said, pointing to a need for "collective action."

At the heart of the issue are decisions that prioritize funding for prisons over funding for education, said UMass Dartmouth professor Susan Krumholz.

"I recognize that some of these issues are bigger than money can handle but ... the answer seems pretty straightforward," she said.

The panel, organized by UMass Dartmouth professor Ricardo Rosa and hosted by the community group 3rd EyE Unlimited, drew more than 60 people, a mix of youth, educators and community members.

"My main goal was to open up a dialogue because too often folks in education are talking to each other," Rosa said.